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MVR’s petition dismissed

Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal filed by former Minister M.V. Raghavan against a single judge’s verdict rejecting his plea for a direction to the Cooperative Society Registrar to appoint a returning officer to conduct elections to the society which runs the Pariyaram Medical College.

The Bench comprising Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Antony Dominic directed the registrar to reconsider afresh the complaint that there was manipulation in the minutes of the meeting of the Thiruvananthapuram District Cooperative Bank which took the decision to withdraw its nominee, Shaju, from the Pariyaram society.

The Bench also quashed the registrar’s order in this regard while allowing an appeal filed by seven director board members of the Thiruvananthapuram District Cooperative Bank against the order. Until the registrar passed an order on the complaint, the nomination of Mr. Shaju to the Pariyaram society would continue.

The court said the registrar was expected to conduct a detailed probe into the allegations of manipulation in the minute’s book of the meeting. There was nothing to show that the registrar had conducted any such inquiry. The court was of the view that the registrar did not apply his mind to various allegations raised by the majority of the members. The Bench dismissed the appeal of Mr. Raghavan, who is the chairman of the Kerala State Cooperative Hospital Complex and Centre for Advanced Medical Services, as the resolution passed by the society violated a section of the Cooperative Society Act which said that the maximum number of members that could be elected to a primary society should not exceed 15.